Art Glass Disc Sculpture by Rick Jarvis

I am often asked just how I create the patterns and layering in my glass. It is important to understand that my glass is created in a kiln which is really just an oven which can get very hot and it can precisely control the rate of heating and cooling of the glass within it.

While I have many techniques that have taken me years to develop, they are based upon a single idea. That idea is that molten glass can be encouraged to flow in ways that leave a beautiful and visible history of its creation. I start with a base of a single color of glass and raise the heat in the kiln until the glass is molten, then by selectively and carefully adding glass the flow begins. If you look carefully perhaps you can see how I do this. I will give you a hint -- I begin in the center and work my way out.

I make each piece individually and no two are identical. Each piece begins as a concept. I then decide how to achieve the effect that I have envisioned and this is where I am humbled by the glass. Often the glass has its own idea of what if will be, and it really is a cooperative effort that the glass and I finally come to. Like most glass artists I realize that glass is a unique and challenging medium, and unforgiving as well. However when I am able to break through those inherent barriers I am able to make something truly unique and if well taken care of, something that will last for generations.

Often I am asked how I came to be a glass artist. I studied art in college but never pursued it until much later in life. I have had a variety of careers ranging from being in the construction business to have a counseling practice with all kinds of exploratory departures into other fields as well. The one common thread through all of my work and into my art is that I have always been on my own and creating my own ideas of how things should be done. The independence that I must have had not always made things easy, but it has made my life and now my art uniquely mine.

I have been working in glass for about seven years now. Working 10-12 hours a day every day has allowed me to be where I am today. I have only taken two weekend classes in glass and read a few books. What I have learned has been learned in my studio by trial and error, instinct, luck and sheer determination.

For more than any other reason I create glass because I love to do it. I have found no other joy that matched the feeling I get when I open the kiln and see a beautiful piece that I know will someday sit in someone's home and will fill them with that joy as well. It is that connection running from the earliest glass artists, through me, and on the collector that inspires me to make each piece something to be proud of.Entire contents © Copyright NJM Gallery, Portsmouth NH (603) 433-4120.